Take a SneakPeeq for 20% off.

@Mayka having fun shopping! #sipandsample

Many thanks to Jennifer Margolin of Red Sole Diary for bringing me along to SneakPeeq’s Sip and Sample event on Tuesday night. A Bay Area kickoff (future cities are on the calendar) for this new shopping app, it was part app intro, sample sale, open bar, and real-life meet-up.

SneakPeeq Who Now?
So who was the host? A better question would be, what is the host? SneakPeeq is a new Facebook app that very cleverly gamifies online shopping. These days everyone seems to be about mobile and gamification, and while SneakPeeq is only available through Facebook thus far, I wouldn’t be surprised if they expand to wireless devices soon.

In SneakPeeq, the end goal is scoring a deal, but the mechanism is crowdsourcing.

How it works.
I don’t use the word “cleverly” lightly – SneakPeeq truly seems like they’ve planned and scoped really well to break into this field. SneakPeeq’s merchandiser Lauren has curated daily selections of apparel, accessories, and finer foods that you, your Facebook friends, and the SneakPeeq community at large can “peeq” toward collectively bringing down the price. Every peeq is a vote for discounting the item, so hypothetically the more popular an item, the greater the chance of it going down in price. On top of the promise of gang-peeqing one item toward savings for all, the first purchaser of the most popularly peeqed product gets another discount on top of the peeq price.

Talk about a successful campaign to create a sense of urgency. And it’s social shopping! Who doesn’t want another excuse to waste time on Facebook and irresponsibly rack up the credit card bills?

If you’d like even more incentive to employ your plastic, here’s a discount code for 20% off of your SneakPeeq purchase:

PEEQSUM20

I’m not sure if there’s an expiration on that, so get in on that!

Neither here nor there.
Interestingly, when it comes to inviting your FB friends (which, of course, you can earn referral dollars for), SneakPeeq sorts all the women to the top. Couldn’t this be bank for clueless guys, though? “I don’t know what to buy for my mom/sister/female coworker, oh look, SneakPeeqers are all over this tub of chocolate popcorn like butter on toast.” Done.

SneakPeeq Sting.
All in all, it was time well spent! Not sure if I should admit this, but it wasn’t the first time I’d gone shopping while holding a drink in my hand. Didn’t mind the Skinny Girl margarita (To be clear: I don’t have any heightened sense about alcohol, anyway.), and quickly poached the bartender for her hairstylist (I miss mine. Send me your recs!). Ran into a number of people who have thus far only been Twitter avatars to me, and came out a winner in the sample sale department, too.

Meet the Bryna Nicole Cross-Body in stingray:

She’s much more purple-y in real life, and the perfect size for gathering all my basics into one hand and quickly stowing them within my work backpack (Yeah, I have a nerdy work backpack. I even chose it because I thought it was decidedly ugly. But it’s perfect. More on that later.) for those moments where I don’t need the whole shebang of comp, tablet, stylus, notebook, etc. More importantly? This cross-body comes with an extra long detachable strap that enables four different ways to wear it: shoulder, clutch, hip bag, belt bag. If there’s one thing that’ll always get me to pony up, it’s convertible design.

My SF-designed score came at $20, while I’ve seen it retail for $61-$100. And that is why you should never say no to a sample sale.